Staunton, June 28 – Many Russian analysts have suggested that the Kremlin views what is going on in Armenia as a color revolution because it is incapable of thinking about any protests in the former Soviet republics as anything but the actions of foreign governments in general and the United States in particular. But Yuliya […]
Staunton, June 26 – In the age of the Internet, it isn’t enough for an authoritarian ruler to control what appears in newspapers and on television. If he really wants to isolate his opponents, he must try to intimidate journalists into not covering those the leader doesn’t like lest they post their reports online and […]
Staunton, June 26 – Vladimir Putin has made the Russian language a key element in his definition of “the Russian world” he wants to create, but his actions in pursuit of that goal are destroying any possibility that Russian speakers will be united, according to Olga Irisova, a Russian associate of Warsaw’s Center for Polish-Russian […]
Staunton, June 26 – Many “natural” disasters are in fact man-made, the direct result of thoughtless, irresponsible or even criminal actions by specific individuals and organizations. The disastrous flooding of Sochi this week is one of those: it is the result of the actions Vladimir Putin took in preparation for the 2014 Winter Olympics in […]
Staunton, June 26 – Vladimir Putin has repeatedly declared that Russians and Ukrainians are one people, but over the last year, the share of Russians who agree with him on that point has continued to fall — and the percentage of those who accept that they are two different nations has risen, according to Levada […]
Staunton, June 25 – Vladimir Putin and his fellow siloviki [power ministers] are again showing in the case of Armenia as they have in Ukraine the limitations of their worldview, according to Igor Eidman. They simply cannot imagine that people can and do protest on their own, and consequently, he and they are always seeking […]
Staunton, June 24 – Many Russian analysts (e.g. SVPressa.ru ) are hurrying to suggest that this week’s protests in Yerevan and their suppression by the Armenian government are the opening round of a new Maidan, an anti-Moscow action that is being promoted and exploited by the West as part of a broader geopolitical struggle. But […]
Staunton, June 22 – Seventy-four years ago today, Hitler turned on his ally Stalin and invaded the Soviet Union, an action that continues to echo in the post-Soviet states with Moscow now routinely but falsely accusing Ukraine of having become fascist while Vladimir Putin’s Russia is rapidly on its way to becoming exactly that, according […]
Staunton, June 22 – Because Moscow has so centralized revenues and decision making and radically lowered the quality of those who head the federal subjects, the Russian Federation faces something worse than disintegration along their borders: it faces radical destabilization as Moscow cannot pay and regional officials cannot hold the line, according to Vladimir Golyshev. […]
Staunton, June 23 – Anti-Americanism has become part of the discourse of ordinary Russians over the last year, but senior government officials have generally been restrained in their use of such phobias. But that has now changed, Nezavisimaya gazeta says, and “anti-American phobias have acquired the status of the official picture of the world in […]
